Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Joel B Levin Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: How Do You Tell Someone About a Security Hole? Message-ID: <8440@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 30 May 90 13:25:45 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Joel B Levin Organization: BBN Communications Corporation Lines: 28 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 398, Message 5 of 13 In article <8344@accuvax.nwu.edu> claris!netcom!ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Isaac Rabinovitch) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 391, Message 7 of 12 |Our anonymous might well have been "trespassing" (though Lippman |ignores the legal responsibility of the "offended" party in this sort |of property rights issue).... An interesting legal theory (which I don't understand very well and which may only apply to some other area of law) is called something like "attractive nuisance" -- if the owner of a property leaves a ladder up to his second story window and a kid climbing it to break in falls and injures himself, the owner may be liable for damages even though the injured party was committing a criminal act. (I don't know whether that somehow excuses the criminal act.) Could it be the employer who leaves a system sitting around with security holes waiting to be entered shares some guilt or is at least liable for some damages for injuries to the employee which result from his being fired? Far out speculation; I'm sure the lawyers hereabouts will flatten this idea fast. /JBL Nets: levin@bbn.com or {...}!bbn!levin POTS: (617)873-3463